Sideswipe: January 21: Sneaky parker

You've got to laugh ... or screamIn Perth, Australia, two cops are on trial for assaulting a man by repeatedly tasering him. Kevin Spratt was under the influence and refused to go to a room to be strip-searched. The officers say tasering was the only option and Spratt says they used excessive force. Here's the strange bit ... the lawyer representing the accused cops tried to argue that Spratt may not have been screaming in anguish and said people responded differently to pain, and the screams could have been with joy or laughter. (Source: ABC.net.au)

Tip scavengers have a coffin fitRoy, formerly of Island Bay, was reading Lynn's story about the coffin on the trailer. "It made me chuckle and reminded me of an incident many years ago. I was helping a friend build props for the local theatre production. One of these was a full-sized coffin. After the production was finished it was normal practice to put the props into storage for any future productions. In this case, however, the wife of one of the cast members had recently passed away, so it was decided that it would not be in good taste to keep it.

I loaded the coffin on to my truck and headed off to the local tip. The tip scroungers all stopped and stared as I drove in. When I got up on the truck, picked up the coffin and threw it off, they all took off screaming. It was only when I was driving off that I realised what it must have looked like."

She didn't see that comingIn an attempt to retrieve her glasses a 78-year-old woman from eastern France ended up spending 22 hours wedged in her chimney. The tale began when she dropped her spectacles while she was looking at the flue. The woman was unable to reach the glasses, so she climbed up to the attic, which has direct access to the chimney, and slung a rope over a beam. After looping the rope under her arms she began lowering herself into the 50cm diameter flue, but about 3m in she began falling. She slid for another 2m before finally becoming wedged in. Fortunately for her the neighbours got worried and raised the alarm. There is no word on whether the spectacles were recovered.

Sporty: Because cricket is so interminably dull there is now an internet radio program, The Alternative Commentary Collective, where a bunch of madcap celebrity-ish blokes we can still stomach - like Leigh Hart, Jeremy Wells, Matt Heath, Ben Hurley, Lee Baker, Jason Hoyte and Beige Brigade founder Mike Lane - rifoff eachothers cricket-mad sensibilities. Read more about it here...And listen here...

Picture this: A photographer explains the intensely emotional shoot he had with actor John Schneider (known mostly for playing Bo Duke in the Dukes Of Hazard)...